i forgot about DADT, but that's another good thing too, imo, that got done.

i have my own complaints about not enough being done, particularly with wall street. and i feel the biggest issue is that he hasn't been able to articulate where he stands clearly enough and fight the republicans full on (but i think a lot of that aggressive stuff he hasn't done because of the race issue, which like it or not is still a factor in this country)

but that doesn't mean that i can't see those accomplishments for what they are, and for a democratic president, they're pretty significant. clinton never managed to get anywhere near this amount of legislation through in his whole 8 years. i feel that it's really all about the economy, and if it was better, these types of complaints wouldn't be happening. but like i said, that was a HUGE mess that exploded literally, like 3 months before he was inaugurated, i always knew that was going to take time, and republicans refuse drastic action on that front for the sake of their own interests, so i don't fault him directly for what's been happening with the economy

Not at all surprising. This is the kind of "news" Fox is known for...right down to the messing up of the most basic of facts (Tex Richman is a Muppet, this is a Sesame Street movie aimed squarely at children, etc).

I will say though, that by pretty much excising Tex's backstory (along with a lot of basic story elements that suffered from the final edit's cut), the filmmakers left themselves open for this kind of thing. An audience member doesn't really get why Tex is doing what he's doing or has a grudge against the Muppets other than he's "the bad guy"...so don't tell your story properly and that kind of ridiculousness happens. But still Fox News never ceases to amaze me with the lows it continually sinks to.

Who wants to start a betting pool as to how long it takes for Fox News to do a story about Crazy Harry defacing Abe Lincoln on the Statue of Liberty?

I will say though, that by pretty much excising Tex's backstory (along with a lot of basic story elements that suffered from the final edit's cut), the filmmakers left themselves open for this kind of thing.

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Frankly I'm glad the back story ended up the way it did so the Muppets could be accused of ::gasp:: making a statement. It's actually very appropriate.

An audience member doesn't really get why Tex is doing what he's doing

Of course this is a inflammatory topic, but all I will say is this: both the left and the right have their loonies. But the fact is that the left does not have an entire channel effectively spouting extremism as news to be taken seriously. And that is very dangerous, and is hurting conservatism as a whole. It's the reason why my father has switched sides.

I really am not a huge fan of either, but I very much dislike people getting misinformation from a heavily-biased news conglomerate who tries to pretend they are fair and balanced. The left has offenders such as, but not to nearly such a cartoonish and dangerous level as FOX News.

Once again Fox News hears a sound bite then formulates a silly, knee-jerk response about it in order to stir people up. Sure, it sounds like “The Muppets” villain is motivated by oil money, but in the film we find out that he holds a personal resentment and there really is no green message. That absence actually surprised me because Jim Henson, a wealthy and self-made man, inserted environmentally conscious messages into his work for years. Aggressively at times. What’s wrong with caring about the world we live in and its inhabitants? That should be part of everyone's agenda no matter what political affiliation!

Fox News' Eric Boling created some internet buzz by accusing The Muppets of brainwashing kids with liberalism due to the film's villain being a Muppet (sic) named Tex RichMan who was really mean and nasty and made the two year olds in the theatre cry. Even though the film had been out since November 23rd, Boling did not reveal this all-important revelation to the American movie-going public until December 2nd. When asked why it took so long to break this story, an unnamed personal assistant to Boling source revealed, "Boling didn't have any issues with the Muppets until the film's star Kermit the Frog was a special guest at President Obama's tree-lighting party the day before...then it got PERSONAL!"

Boling's report soon went viral as several (legititmate) news sources and (not quite legitimate-but-better-with-fact-checking-than-Fox-News-which-is-saying-a-LOT) blogs linked to the story...not as an attempt to agree with it but to point out how Boling had become the Internet's Laughing Stock of the Day. When asked if Boling might be issueing any kind of retraction, the same inside source replied, "on the contrary he's working on a follow-up report condemning the movie's blatent promotion of Travelling By Map as an attack on gas-fueled vehicles. He'll also cover how the depiction of the proper response to a marriage proposal being 'Mahna Mahna' rather than 'Yes' is threatening traditional marriage values."

In other news, Fox News has just received a BaZillion Unlikes on its Facebook page.

Had the editor of the movie not done such a hatchet job, we actually might have been able to glean something about Tex Richman's background or motivation. As it stands however, he seems like a random 1-dimensional segueway simply for the purposes of being there.

Anyways, it's often hard to tell the difference between Fox and the Onion News Network Not that Im letting MSNBC off the hook...they're owned by GE, a major weapons manufacturer

The Daily Show included a snippet of the FOX segment in their "moment of zen", and Conan did a bit where they took the "We Built This City" montage and layered in the Soviet Union anthem over it. It was pretty funny, Animal praised "Stalin's" drumset and the segment ended with a parody of the poster with the Muppets in old Russian commie wear.

Fox News' Eric Boling created some internet buzz by accusing The Muppets of brainwashing kids with liberalism due to the film's villain being a Muppet (sic) named Tex RichMan who was really mean and nasty and made the two year olds in the theatre cry. Even though the film had been out since November 23rd, Boling did not reveal this all-important revelation to the American movie-going public until December 2nd. When asked why it took so long to break this story, an unnamed personal assistant to Boling source revealed, "Boling didn't have any issues with the Muppets until the film's star Kermit the Frog was a special guest at President Obama's tree-lighting party the day before...then it got PERSONAL!"

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Why does no one ever bring up that Big Bird was a guest of the Nixon White House? Why does everyone forget Barbra Bush and her Daughter in law were both welcomed on Sesame Street?

Gotta agree with Heralde. Personally, I'm looking at third party options. I don't know how anyone can honestly think that Obama is any better than his predecessors. They're all basically the same these days.

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The sad thing is, while it's a small difference, it's still a difference. At the very least the Dems want to slightly raise taxes on the wealthy to second term Clinton levels (where he cut taxes he raised in his first term), give minor tax cuts to the working class (but that extra little bit is a life saver), and Obama has been frustratedly pushing for jobs for veterans when they finally come home. Remember the last guy? We couldn't even give the decent hospitals. Sure, both sides are perpetuating the 1980's Neo-Con revolution of idiotic Middle Eastern policy, but the left doesn't just toss soldiers aside after they're done playing with them.

More over, the rhetoric coming from the candidates on the right... it's not conservative at all, it's too far right to be classified. Newt's been hinting at repealing Child Labor laws. That's monstrous. It seems the party wants to bring us back into the dark ages of the Industrial Revolution. And while I can't say our country's not headed that way anyway, they're all pretty much banging on the door of war with Iran. And then we'll be stuck in that glorious "If you don't love the war, you're a terrorist sympathizer" HUAC phase. At least the wars under Obama are "you failed because you didn't keep your promise."

as for Gitmo, I thought Wikileaks made it perfectly clear that the US kept it open because no other country in the world wanted the prisoners except for the Middle Eastern dictatorships that would set them all free. Right or left, we'll always be married to Middle East Policies, no matter who promises different.

But the fact is that the left does not have an entire channel effectively spouting extremism as news to be taken seriously.

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Well actually there are a few channels that get that label.

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Herald, you probably didn't read those last 4 words in that post..." to be taken seriously." Anyone took Air America seriously? No. Liberal commentators come off as sounding like the fat girls table... passive aggressive assaults against the popular girls only they share and only they listen to. That's all that amounted to.

It all comes down to marketing. Would you rather go to a doctor that says you're a disgusting pig and forces you on a strict new meal plan of food you hate to eat or a doctor that says, "Nah! You're doing fine" even though it's lying through his teeth? People only want to hear news that makes them happy or outrages them.

That said, I can't wait for Neo-Con kid's programming, especially the Koch Brothers save Christmas. Ah that magical tale where they buy up Santa's Workshop, lay off all the elves, outsource the workshop to a third world nation, make huge short term profits, and use those to buy up government influence to deregulate their toys made through various corner cutting procedures that make the toys completely unsafe... all culminating in that great classic Christmas song hit, "Kids love Lead Paint (and they don't need the use of their limbs)."

Sure, it sounds like “The Muppets” villain is motivated by oil money, but in the film we find out that he holds a personal resentment and there really is no green message.

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I disagree somewhat. True, environmentalism isn't the main goal of the film, but it's clearly implied several times that he wants to destroy the theater for oil profits. Even if they had kept his childhood plotline in tact, the fact that he's an oil baron wouldn't suddenly become irrelevant to his motivations.

Again, it's surprising to me that we're all responding to Fox News by saying, "Oh no, no, there's no liberal message at all!" Why are we trying so hard to back away from that?

I disagree somewhat. True, environmentalism isn't the main goal of the film, but it's clearly implied several times that he wants to destroy the theater for oil profits. Even if they had kept his childhood plotline in tact, the fact that he's an oil baron wouldn't suddenly become irrelevant to his motivations.

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I really think Tex should have been a greedy land developer and instead of oil, luxury condos... but then that would be far too similar to Ms. Bitterman's motives in VMX (and there's a lot of similarities to it as it is).

The thing that bugs me, it's more of a Neo-Con thing than a true conservative thing. Since a lot of conservatives are Christian (though Christians aren't exclusively conservative), I'm surprised no one ever mentions that unbridled greed and gluttony are considered the top sins. Tex didn't represent just a wealthy guy, he represented a greedy guy who wants more at the risk of losing some and taking others down in the process. Not here nor there do the Muppets invent a new fuel or some sort of Muppet Labs device to pull the oil out of the ground without damaging the studios (I actually was half expecting Bunsen and Beaker to come out near the end of the movie and propose such an idea)... the message isn't so much alternatives to oil, but rather greedy pursuits, especially one aimed at the expense of others, is not a moral way to make money.

I could very well say the same for Ducktales, Scrooge McDuck worked hard to gain his fortune, after coming from modest means, and does not make profit on anything illegal or immoral. He values the money as an accomplishment far over its monetary value (his most precious possession is the first dime he ever made... there's an even longer story behind that I don't want to get into) And often times, he finds that family and friends are more important than mere treasures.... meanwhile Flintheart Glomgold's pursuits are far more immoral and competitive... he wants to destroy his rival, Scrooge McDuck and even hired criminals (the Beagle Boys) in those attempts. He is never happy, unless he's gloating over the misery of others, and he's a completely rotten miserly miserable person.

The thing that bugs me, it's more of a Neo-Con thing than a true conservative thing. Since a lot of conservatives are Christian (though Christians aren't exclusively conservative), I'm surprised no one ever mentions that unbridled greed and gluttony are considered the top sins.

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Many would prefer not to think about it.

the message isn't so much alternatives to oil, but rather greedy pursuits, especially one aimed at the expense of others, is not a moral way to make money.

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Exactly. Fox News is correct that the film has a critical attitude towards corporate greed. And that's a good thing.

Exactly. Fox News is correct that the film has a critical attitude towards corporate greed. And that's a good thing.

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Yeah... after all, when you're head is a multi-billionare who wants to buy up every media outlet in the world, that's the point they're driving home... plus it's Fox Business, and only greedy corporate types LOVE that stuff.

I get why its a Neo-Con issue, but when it comes to traditional conservative values based on biblical teachings, I'm completely lost.

But besides the point I also want to tackle this:

When asked why it took so long to break this story, an unnamed personal assistant to Boling source revealed, "Boling didn't have any issues with the Muppets until the film's star Kermit the Frog was a special guest at President Obama's tree-lighting party the day before...then it got PERSONAL!"

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If that actually is the case (and I quoted that before), it's VERY juvenile.

Do I hate Kelsey Grammar for launching a conservative entertainment channel and therefore despise the show Frasier, Sideshow Bob, his role in Teacher's Pet the Movie or Toy Story 2? Of course not.

Do I think John Ratzenbergger should be banned from Pixar movies because he's with the Tea Party? Perish the thought!

Do I disown and condemn B.B. King for performing at the Bush White house? No way Jose!

How about Ben Stein? He's a conservative commentator, surely I'd have problems with that. Pfffft! And hate on the guy from Ferris Bueler's Day off, the very boring guy from Animaniacs, The Pixies from Fairly Oddparents, that psychiatrist from The Mask (reprising his role for the cartoon), and the sad old man that science left Bunsen? Actually...heh... he's my favorite conservative commentator, and a model for the rest of them. He argues his point in a way that you can disagree with him, but he doesn't come off disagreeable.

Some celebrities take sides, some politicians just like celebrities. Kermit and Fozzie were guests of Fox News and welcomed like anyone else. Sure, there's a vendetta against Sesame Street, but that's purely because it's on PBS.